David 'Vuj' Vujanic Explains His Viral 'Awkward White People Smile' Meme, Dogeday 2024, 'Bricka Bricka' And KSI Collab

Sometimes a meme comes around that perfectly encapsulates a specific emotion, solidifying it in meme culture as the ultimate show of "that feel." For awkward white people, that meme is the aptly named "Awkward White People Smile."

The meme has been around for a decade now, but even some of the most chronically online people still don't know the man behind the smile. That is, until a photo from the Dogeday 2024 event went viral in November, featuring the likes of meme legends Bad Luck Brian (Kyle Craven) and Scumbag Steve (Blake Boston) standing next to the awkward smiler himself, David "Vuj" Vujanic.

To the surprise of many, Vuj has had an illustrious career in content creation, including a series of multi-million view hit YouTube videos as his character Bricka Bricka, a music video with KSI and two appearances at Sidemen soccer games.

We recently spoke with Vuj to learn the full story behind his iconic meme and career in content creation.

Q: It's good to speak with you, Vuj. Can you introduce yourself for those who might not know you?

A: My name is David Vujanic, aka Vuj. I’m relatively known for content and having an online presence since around the 2010, 2011 days. I’ve been posting online, creating content, working within content in different spheres. I hate to use a cliche, but I guess I’m a creative of some sorts, or perhaps a digital creative. I like the philosophical terms of “Flâneur” and “vagabond” are my favorite terms.

Q: How did you get started creating content?

A: Around 2010, 2011, I was quite drawn to YouTube. I was drawn to the virality of people like The Lonely Island. I loved their humor. Borat, a few UK guys, Shadrack and the Mandem, those parody, satire guys. That inspired me because I had a year off before I went to university to have a go at my own ideas and a few of them caught traction online and on YouTube and did quite well. So I guess that’s where it all kind of started.

Q: What kind of content are you most known for?

A: It was mainly parodies I was interested in. Musical parodies, rapping. Just taking songs and doing my own little takes on them with characters that I had created, inspired by the names I mentioned before. I was really drawn to comedy, I guess outlandish humor, some would say veering a bit on the controversial side. I did really love the stereotypes and playing on stereotypes, having fun with it, kind of inverting my background as someone who is from the Eastern Bloc, shall I say, the Vulcans, playing with that a little bit.

I had a character called Bricka Bricka that I was most known for in those days, sort of rapping about stereotypical Eastern European things, like having a drink, loving to build stuff and being quite aggressive. I was also inspired by my dad, who’s a builder, so in a way I built it off him and who he was. I really enjoyed that fun few years of exploring characters and doing parodies in the very early YouTube days. I’d say pre-ads, or just as ads were beginning, so it was always for the love of it. Times have changed now, especially with content, but those were the initial outbursts of creativity that I had online.

Q: So what’s your content career been like overall?

A: A few of [my videos] are a bit more localized and London-centric. One of them was called “Poor 2011” which was a parody of a very popular UK grime song called “POW” and that was my first video that went, at least locally, viral, in London and the inner cities of the UK.

I grew up in inner-city London, around a city culture – Black culture, Caribbean culture – it’s just a real mix in London of so many different cultures and I felt like that was a huge inspiration for me in terms of my creativity and what I enjoyed producing. This parody sort of blew up and was picked up by some of my favorite rappers, which was like a dream come true as a 20-year-old.

Then the Bricka Bricka character, playing on this sort of Eastern European immigrant who is also a rapper, builder/rapper, I think it was quite outlandish. I liked being outlandish with it, being absurd. I’m a bit of an absurdist as well.

That got picked up as well and I think the most popular I did was a “Gangnam Style” parody, “Eastern European Style.” It was sort of playing with Eastern European stereotypes and it did really well, it’s sitting at around 4 million views at the moment. So that one did well and was picked up quite widely in the Eastern European regions.

Then I went into football, actually, because my other passion was football. I ended up working for a YouTube channel called COPA90, which does football content. I had a few ideas that did quite well, specifically “FIFA and Chill.” I took the Netflix and Chill meme and I made it into an interview format where we got players to relax. The first few episodes, me and my co-host wore bathrobes, produced that, made it a bit more – tried to make soccer players more human, more fun, more lighthearted. That did really well, so the parodies took a bit of a backseat and I ended up more hosting and presenting and speaking to soccer players and traveling the world, watching football.

That carried me seven or eight years and then I went independent with my friend. Did that for two or three years on a soccer channel. Since then I’ve been freelancing. Bit of burnout post-COVID. I think the burnout finally hit after 10 years of going and going hard at it. Now I’m sort of relaxing and seeing what the next thing is for me.

Q: You did a video with KSI back in 2014 before he had his massive blow-up. What was that like?

A: I think that was his first sort of rap track. There was a song called “The German Whip,” it’s about driving a Mercedes and having a German car, by a London rapper, Meridian Dan, from North London. I took it and I made a parody called “Boris Bike,” which is playing on the German whip and the Boris Bike is the bikes you can rent, which are colloquially known as “Boris Bikes.” I don’t know what the actual name is, but the mayor who introduced them was Boris Johnson.

So I decided to make a parody and I wanted to have just a really good cast. There was a guy called Klayze, who is an amazing actor. Amazing creative. KSI was a character I wanted in there. KSI obviously is an icon in the YouTube game and he’s been smashing it for ages, so even then. I thought it would be cool to have him on and he accepted and he said it was good I messaged him then because within a couple weeks, he was actually going to sign a record deal and start rapping for real.

So I got him a few weeks before he actually started to rap and I think he did his Lamborghini track within a month or two. His next thing was “Lamborghini” and his whole foray into music. So it was cool to be there at the beginning of his journey, unintentionally, not knowing he was going to pursue that. It was nice to jump on that because he was a bigger name.

We had fun. I’m not sure if he was happy with his verse because it’s a parody, we sort of had fun with it. But you know, congratulations to him with everything he’s been doing. But yeah, I’ve collaborated with a lot of people and know a lot of people within the UK scene, so that’s how that one came around.

Q: That connection with KSI eventually led you to play in the Sidemen soccer games. What was that like?

A: It was awesome. I played in the first two Sidemen soccer games. Now it’s a 90,000-seater charity game in Wimbley in February 2025, so it was cool to be there at the birthing of something. It seems like that’s a pattern I have within my creative career. I’m always there when things are bubbling, that’s when I enjoy them the most. It was great, an amazing experience. Mr. Penalty, I won a penalty and missed a penalty, it was heartbreaking. I played in one more after that – brilliant experience playing in front of a crowd.

I’d say that’s still quite early in the digital age, so for the Sidemen back then, even, to sell out 15,000 or 20,000 is incredible. There’s another YouTuber, Spencer Whimbley, who also did it and sold out 10, 15, then 30,000. I was very active and honored to have been able to take part in such activities. I see the boys have continued and are now doing 90k at Wembley. It’s a testament to their longevity and how big the internet’s gotten and how big everything’s gotten.

Not sure I’ll be playing, but hopefully I’ll be there in attendance for the next game.

Q: Would you ever bring the Bricka Bricka character back?

A: As much as I like to be early on things, I sometimes leave them too early. I don’t know if that’s some sort of character trait I have where I like to explore musings. I guess I get kinda bored. I also don’t want to oversaturate with the same idea. I don’t want to bore people, because I think the same character can become too repetitive. So maybe. It’s not a no, but I think it’ll have to be a good moment where it feels right to reintroduce the character. I think it definitely has legs, especially as immigration and the topic of immigrants and foreigners and politicization of everything that’s been going on in the world, and the topic of immigration has never left. It’s crazy to see that that character could still be relevant if I decided. So maybe, not 100% no or 100% yes, just gotta be the right moment.

I think the content creation space is a tricky space to stay — I don’t like the word “relevant” because it doesn’t necessarily mean “quality,” or that something is great. But to stay creatively motivated, I think, is the tough part. I guess I’m a character who likes to dig into the nitty gritty. I’m interested in the philosophical aspects of life. I like to explore the depths of, shall I say, “the psyche.” But yeah, I think now I could come back in some manner because I’ve left a good space. It could build an element of nostalgia now for people who know the character, or know me as the character. Sometimes I still get recognized for the character, even though I’ve got a beard, I’ve got long hair now. But I guess it was so early on that a lot of people grew up on it and they tell me when they see me, “Oh I grew up watching that character.” So maybe, we’ll see.

Q: In 2015, an old-school photo went viral, becoming the “Awkward White People Smile” meme. How did that come about?

A: I did check, I think on my Instagram, I might have posted it even earlier. It could have even been 2013 or 2012. The context of that one was, I think, because it was so long ago, I posted it for sure. I think it exists on my Instagram and I must have captioned it like, “Oh my way to f–k your b--h” or something like that. It was something just silly like that. I think I might have tweeted it ages ago with something along the lines of, “This is how white people smile at Black people when they see them on the street.” That got memed, I think, by World Star HipHop and they actually memed it, you know? Then it ended up on Reddit, 4chan, 9GAG and it sort of traveled in the UK and became popular on pages like UNIlad. It just sort of became synonymous with being awkward.

I’ve just seen it used in so many contexts, so it’s kind of like — even I’m not 100% sure when I put it out. I put it out and I had a bit of an audience, people knew me for my takes and my kind of quirky creativity and whatnot. Then it just kind of flew, then it had a quiet period, then it would just boom again. In Italy, it was very popular on their biggest meme pages. It got voted like, meme of the month February 2022 in Italy. So it’s had a weird lifecycle where some people have no clue about it, but those that know really know. It’s been crazy to sort of see it suddenly appear in Germany and Denmark and used for so many different scenarios of awkwardness.

You know, like, “When you’re the cashier and you have to go run to get flour.” “When you walk into the lift and you both press the same button.” I think one of my favorite ones was, “When you get back your STI results and it says positive for chlamydia.” There’s so many of these moments it’s been used in.

So 2012 or 2013 I might have put it out and it got big around 2015. Had a bit of a chill period but during lockdown, it sort of got picked up again and Italy picked it up. What I like about Italians is they take the face and use it in scenarios. Whereas in the UK and America, it’s like, “caption, photo.” In Italy, they would like put [the face] on a football player and he’s done something in the game, or they’ll put it on their Prime Minister when he messed up some COVID regulations. They sort of went a bit more creative with it and it’s crazy how it’s gone and became this sort of worldwide meme synonymous with awkwardness and white people.

It kind of became this white people smile as well. I get it, because I predominantly see it being used by Western white people. It’s nothing to be ashamed about, I think it’s a funny observation, which I noticed when I was younger. Let’s say if someone is a middle-class white person, grew up in a certain way, when they see people of certain demographics, you don’t know how to react. There’s like, an awkwardness. I’ve seen it with my friends. That’s why I put it out there in that manner, as an observation I had. It just kind of took on a life of its own.
It seems to transcend awkwardness and work in many other situations, but it became synonymous with Caucasity, shall I say.

Q: Do people generally know that it’s you in the meme?

A: I think it was funny when they used it in an interview with Tom Holland. Someone used that photo and was like, “This is you.” Tom Holland said, “I can confirm this is not me. I don’t know who this kid is.” I’ve seen people say it’s Freddy Highmore when I tweet it or put it on my socials. It’s had such a weird lifecycle, honestly, but I’ve really enjoyed seeing it. To this day even, the recent photo [at Dogeday] that went viral, people were writing, “I didn’t know this was you.” It’s like, how did you not know? I’ve posted about it so many times and told people it’s me.

But hey, that is the life of the meme, you know? The life of memes in general. They have a peculiar lifecycle and we’re in a digital age, where me and you are literally having an interview about a school photo that was taken in the year 2000, which I find fascinating because even the photo album is called “The Millenium Edition.” It has the year 2000 on it. It was almost as if this meme represents a new age and even before my sort of general, digital presence, I was destined to be in this sort of world with this smile coming from my past into the future. Or maybe this is just me trying to make sense of things that make no sense.

Q: What do you remember about the day the photo was taken? Did you or anyone in your family know there was something special about it?

A: I have to give credit to the photographer. I don’t know his name or if he knows that he took a photo of quite a viral meme. But you do yearly photos in school in the UK. It was the end of the year, you know, your mum does your hair nice, does your tie all proper. The photographer was trying to make me smile and I do not like people telling me what to do. I think even as a kid I hated being told what to do. I remember even in nursery being told to nap. I never understood why I was napping and it was daytime outside. That always used to get on my nerves. Then this guy was like, “Hey, have a big smile.” I didn’t want to smile and it kind of became this non-verbal fight between me and the photographer where I wouldn’t smile and he was like, “Come on, smile.”

I just ended up hitting him with the awkward white people smile. You know, an act of rebellion against the authoritarian rule of the school photographer. That was it, I didn’t know what was going to happen. My mum bought the photos, thought it was cute, whatever. I would have been eight years old and I would have put it out on the Internet when I would have been like 22 or something, a decade or so after.

Q: What’s been your general reaction to the meme going viral?

A: It’s funny because it was used in such funny scenarios and it was memed in such a humorous situation, used for such humorous, common situations that are relatable. It sort of spread very organically. I think it was overall a very positive reaction and to the amusement of many who still, to this day, don’t believe it’s me. It even became sort of a conversation starter. People ask me what I do and I struggle to explain it. One of the things I say is that I’m a meme. They’ll be like, “What?” and I’ll say, “Have you seen this photo?” They’re like, “Yeah, I’ve used that in my WhatsApp group.” So it’s just crazy.

It’s crazy how it’s been picked up and become this thing. I’ve enjoyed it. Out of everything I’ve done online, many that have been successful and impactful, the meme transcends everything. I bet if I was somehow to aggregate all the impressions and views of the meme, it completely takes over anything else that I’ve done because it’s been everywhere. What I like is that it’s out of my hands. I like that it got taken by the world and the world decides what it is. That’s what I like about meme culture in general.

Q: How big is the meme in your eyes?

A: I feel like if you’ve been online, especially in certain circles, you’ve probably seen [the meme]. Most people who have been religiously online, as I have, have seen it. It’s sort of gone under the radar of some, but I’d say probably 70% of people I ask have seen it.

Q: Have you ever been recognized for the meme specifically?

A: I look quite different now. Got a beard, got this kind of hair that looks like I just came back from an ayahuasca trip somewhere. So people tend to not recognize me from the meme. It’s usually from other stuff — the interview formats, football content, the Bricka Bricka content.

Once I was recognized for the meme by an Italian guy. I was just walking and a guy at a bus stop was like, “Excuse me? Are you the meme?” He didn’t know anything else I’ve done, he’s going, “You are the guy from the meme. The smile,” I’m like, “Yeah, yeah,” he’s like, “Can I take a photo?” So it has happened once, to my utter shock. I was not expecting it at all. It was quite cool. That’s probably my favorite time I’ve ever been recognized for something I’ve done online.

If that’s the legacy I leave on this earth, I’m happy with that. I don’t know if the new-gen are going to pick up on it as much as my generation. In the current gen, everything is changing. Everything eventually dies out, we have to accept that as well. But we’ll see. Being a meme in the early digital age is an honor. In some way, it’s an honor.

It’s like, “We used to fight in wars.” Now it’s like, “We’re memes.”

Q: You were at DogeDay 2024 with some other meme legends. How did that come about?

A: Shoutout to DogeDay, all the guys that own Doge. It’s just peculiar, isn’t it? The whole thing is so absurd.

I really wanted to go to Japan. I ended up minting [the awkward smile meme] as an NFT. It did end up getting picked up by a big NFT collector. It’s a group that bought it. So, I met the gentlemen that own it, really cool guys. I was connected with them through an Albanian friend of mine who is also into crypto. He put me in touch with them. I was actually told to sell the meme ages ago as an NFT, during the boom in 2020. I did it at a weird time where no one was really doing it, so it didn’t go crazy.

So before that, I was also talking to Bad Luck Brian. I saw he did really well with his meme and he had his own page. I messaged Brian and I was like, “Yo, this meme, how did you go about doing it as an NFT?” He tried to help, I didn’t really listen or get it. Then a few years later, my friend told me about Path and maybe they’d be interested to buy. I did it for them and then the Doge guys got in touch because Bad Luck Brian went [to DogeDay] last year. So he asked if I’d be interested in going to International DogeDay and I said of course. It’s an iconic meme, a coin now, it’s the Department Of Government Efficiency now, it’s insane. So I said I’d love to, he put me in touch with the guys from Doge, got in a group with them on Telegram.

So I went to Japan to celebrate Doge, celebrate the lady who owns Doge. Sadly she passed away last year, so I didn’t get to meet the actual Doge, but I meant the gentleman who coined the term, John. I met so many niche, I guess, important names in the meme space. It was like, the man who first said “doge.” The guys who own the meme. Brain’s there, then I meet Scumbag Steve, who I started calling S--thead Steve by accident. So then you’ve got me, Brian, Scumbag Steve, DogeDay happening in the background.

The guys who own Doge tried to beat the record for the amount of dogs having their teeth brushed simultaneously. They were off it by 50 because it started raining that day and it was a bit more out of Tokyo, so they couldn’t really motivate the troops in time to come. Still, they got over 200, it was just 50 short of actually breaking the record. Nonetheless, what an experience to be out there, meeting people who are in the crypto space but also doing good in the crypto space, because they’ve raised over $2 million for charity. They’re really into their names and they’re authentic. I think sometimes crypto gets a bad rep. You know, they say it’s people trying to shill coins and make a quick buck, but these guys are really into it for the love of internet culture, memes and doing good, because that’s what it stands for. Do Only Good Every Day.

There could have been more memes, maybe there will be next year, but this year it was Awkward White Guy Smile, Bad Luck Brian and Steve. I was like, “We gotta get a photo together.” I didn’t have a t-shirt. These guys came prepared. Scumbag Steve had this t-shirt, Bad Luck Brian has got the whole outfit, the stickers. I look so different to my meme, so I had to put it on my phone and do the smile. That photo just went crazy. I put it out on my socials, then Memezar picked it up and they collaborated it with Pubity and it got like, 700,000 likes on Instagram. I’ve never been involved in a post that’s had more likes.

Q: So what’s next for you?

A: I have no idea. I haven’t planned it this far and it’s been insane. I’ve been lucky to be able to make my way through life where I can create and come up with ideas and make things happen. I do enjoy connecting things, connecting people with things, I like making things happen. I’m not as drawn to being on camera anymore. I think I’ve done a lot of that and if that happens it happens and I could maybe explore the on-camera acting angle but I like to keep myself on my toes. So honestly, I have no clue, but let’s see.

Q: What’s some advice you’d give to people trying to survive on the internet?

A: Capitalize on your moments. Don’t be lazy. Expand and be creative with whatever’s presented to you and enjoy the ride. We are in a crazy world. Amazing but at the same time, it can be so horrible. So I think focus on the positive if you can. Be creative and enjoy if you can, because we’re lucky. Even if you’re watching this interview, you’re lucky. The fact that we can watch an interview on memes is crazy.

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A big thank you to David Vujanic for talking with us. You can follow him on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter @dvujanic and YouTube @DavidVujanic.